A small family gathering

Five years ago on Halloween this guy asked me out.  Less than four weeks of dating, and my family was coming to visit for Thanksgiving.

"Do you. . . want to, like, come play games with my family on Wednesday?"  I was super nervous to ask him.

"Let me ask my mom what we're doing and I'll let you know"  Which is code for, You're kind of freaking me out.  I need some time to think about this.

So I was cool, it's no big deal.  Think about it.  Take your time.

Cool worked, he came. He met my mom and dad, my siblings and my uncle Doug and his family

On the actual Thanksgiving day he and I exchanged a few facebook messages.  He worked bright and early on Black Friday.  My family used that day to take family pictures. 

I was hoping to find a picture of ALL of us, but I did find this picture of my dad and his siblings.  He is the middle of 7 children.  Four of them are girls.

Top row: Dad, Linda, Janette, Grandpa, Grandma Lois (my grandpa's second wife), Phil.  Bottom row: Renon, Myrna, Doug.

While we were taking pictures, one or more of my aunts told me to invite my boy to pizza dinner that night.  I guess I texted him "Do you want to come over for dinner? My aunts want to meet you."  He interpreted this as a small gathering.  Most of my dad's siblings have four children.  My aunt Myrna has four children AND they're all married with children of their own.  Pretty much ALL of my cousins were there.  It was a HUGE group.

Adam still teases me about this.  But let the record show that he left my side five minutes after we arrived and spent more time talking to my family than he did me. 

Our Story (III)

Part I

Part II

Adam and I continued to be friends, even when they took him off my committee and gave him a different responsibility.  Despite his email, Adam didn't ask me out, and things kept going pretty much as they always had.

One Saturday towards the end of October I got a phone call from Adam.  He asked why I was home on a Saturday night.  I told him I was just waiting for my date to pick me up.  He wanted to ask me out for that night!  I tried to sound cool, but my heart was breaking inside.  My one and only chance and I already had a date.  As soon as I got off the phone I called my dad.  He told me it was better that I was not available.  I hoped that was true.

The next week there was a dinner and a service project.  Lucky for Adam everyone who was supposed to help him had gone out of town.  It was . . . a bit of a disaster.  But men seem to have a way of staying calm, even when a large group of people is showing up for dinner and there isn't any dinner.  I offered to go and pick up some bread to go with the lasagna that was still in the oven cooking.  And the boy who had taken me out that weekend offered to drive me to the store.  Dang, he was cramping my flirting style!  I declined and my roommate and I ran quickly to the store.  Dinner actually went okay! (Men, things always work out for them!)  My roommate conveniently had to leave after dinner, leaving me with out a ride to the food bank and Adam agreed to let me ride with him. 

On the way to the food bank Taylor Swift came on the radio.  "Who's a country music fan?" Adam asked the car full of girls.  All of them.  Except me.  He bragged about his Carrie Underwood tickets and how he wanted to have a contest for all the girls to see which lucky girl he would be taking to the concert.  I pretended not to care.

A week or two later I attended a institute class (like an LDS Bible study) and despite there being a huge turn out, Adam and some friends ended up sitting right in front of me.  I invited him to a non-existent Halloween party, and so my roommate and I quickly planned a Halloween party.  He showed up at the last minute and as he left (at 2am!) he asked me out for the next weekend! (I wrote this story in greater detail here, if you care to read it)  If you ever meet Adam in real life, you'll have to have him show you what I did with my eyes when I said yes.  Its hilarious and I don't believe it at all.

On our first date I honestly thought to myself, "I can't date Adam!  My face cannot take all this laughing and smiling."  We had so much fun and he asked me out again at the end of the date.  That November 19th he took me to see Carrie Underwood in concert.

Our first picture together, taken by Adam's cell phone at the Carrie Underwood concert.

We've been together ever since.  We got married a year and two weeks after our first date, on November 21, 2009.

There are a lot of details I left out, to keep this from getting out of control.  Maybe they'll creep up here and there as different blog posts.  :)

Our Story (II)

 Part I

Upon returning from my trip I was pretty much dating Jake.  He came over to my apartment every day after school and I made dinner.  On Wednesday nights I would go visiting people with my Fellowship Committee.  Jake was not a big fan of me driving around the city with Joe, Adam and Merrill.  Sometimes Valerie or Celeste would come, but most often I was the only girl.

Jake continued to get more and more possessive.  And that boy with the bleach blonde spiky hair?  His name was Adam and he continued to be a better and better friend to me.  I had never met a more sincere guy.  Hot girls, homely girls, everyone we went to visit, Adam was equally kind and excited to get know them.  We also talked about our lives.  We talked about my job as a Family and Consumer Science teacher (the new name for Home Ec) and the FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America, a student organization) adviser.  Adam was in FCCLA in high school and I now worked with some of the people who had been his advisers.  We talked about me dating Jake.  Adam was the only person who I was totally honest with, and he encouraged me to end it.

I was 25.  I shouldn't just go ending relationships.  I could work things out with Jake.  What if I didn't and I ended up single for the rest of my life?  (I have a tendency to be a bit dramatic sometimes, but who doesn't?) And then it hit me.  If I preferred the company of someone else more than my boyfriend I should end it.  Adam will probably never ask me out, but at least being friends with him has shown me the kind of guy I do want to be with and I deserve that.

I will spare you the details, but breaking up with Jake took three tries.  To quote Michael Scott: Yeah I went hunting once.  Shot a deer in the leg.  Had to kill it with a shovel.  Took about an hour.  Why do you ask?

When it was finally done, I quickly changed my facebook status to single.  On September 20, 2008 I got an facebook message from Adam:

Subject: Oh so sorry
Well i am sorry to hear about the breakup.... Well you know there is always me!!!!!

Our Story (I)

Every blogger does it.  Every blogger writes the story of how they fell in love.  And I guess I fight to be different and not do what every blogger does.  But when I read Bon's love story today, I realized how much I love reading other love stories.  And if I love it, surely someone else must love it too?  If no one else cares to read it, at least it will be documented for our children, and so for that reason (and others) here it is, finally, our love story:

*    *    *

What if?

The classic question that will freak you out if you ask it too often.

What if I never met Liz?  I would never have become a Family and Consumer Science teacher.  What if I never had a crush on that boy?  I would never have been so determined to live in Salt Lake after graduation.  What if I hadn't moved into those apartments?  I would never have. . . it goes on and on, and so its hard to know where to start our story.  Where does it really begin?  My favorite line from Dan in Real Life is: "So Dan, you were born?"  I could start at my birth, but we don't have that much time.  I'll start the summer after my first year of teaching.  I'll start when I turned 25, because that's when my mom wanted me to get married (or later, but not earlier)

*    *    *

25.  I secretly wondered if my mom was praying that I wouldn't meet the person I was going to marry until I was 25.  And so I wasn't surprised when three days after my 25th birthday a boy from church called and asked me out.  I thought he was really funny, after hearing him speak in church a few weeks earlier, and I had gotten to know him at choir practice (I was the director).  I was done dating jocks and so this slightly nerdy computer science major might be just the guy I was looking for.

We went out once and then he left to go home for a three week break from school.  A girlfriend of mine decided we should go down to St. George for a weekend of shopping, naturally we would stay with Jake at his house (names have been changed to protect the . . . annoying?)  I decided to plan the most epic trip of my life.  To this day, I think it's one of the best things I ever decided to do in life.

The day before I left on my trip I spoke in church.  They also were putting in a new Relief Society Presidency that day (Relief Society is the LDS women's organization, its where women spend their time during the third hour of church) I was asked to be the new secretary.  I was glad to not be choir director anymore.  But they forgot me!  The bishop (the leader of an LDS congregation) announced the new presidency, but stopped before he got to me.  And since speakers sit up in front I almost jumped up to the bishop to inform him of his mistake.  I didn't.  I decided to wait until the meetings were over. The bishop said it wasn't a mistake and asked me to see him after church.

So there I was in my bishop's office.  Instead of RS Secretary they wanted me to be the co-chair of the Fellowship Committee.  Fellowship Committee?  I felt like that was a made up thing.  But I agreed.

"And today," said the bishop, "we asked a young man to be on your committee.  Did you see him stand during sacrament meeting?  Here is his name and number.  Give him a call and let him know how he can help you."  I did see this boy stand up.  Bleach blonde spiky hair, shirt sleeves rolled to just below the elbow, he looked like one of those guys that only came to church to hit on girls in the hallway instead of going to class.  Plus, I didn't even know what I was doing!  How was I supposed to know what help I would need?  And, I informed the bishop of this, I don't call boys. 

The next day I left on my most epic trip ever!  I drove to San Diego to visit my friends Jenny, Shillawna and Lindsey.

Jenny and Shillawna, friends from high school.

Me and Lindsey, college roommate

From there I drove to Orange County to celebrate the 4th of July with my grandparents, cousins and my mom and sister.

Dallin and me.  Buy one cousin, get one free?

Cousin Kyle and me.

Then home to Lancaster for a few days.

Me and my "little" brother Kenny

Kellie, me, Kenny and Hannah.  All of these people tower over me now. 

Then on my way back to Salt Lake I picked up my girlfriend at the Las Vegas airport and we spent three days in St George shopping and eating out and swimming.  Oh and of course staying at Jake's house.  (Sorry no pictures of this part.  I deleted them all.)